S.C. Supreme Court hears presidential primary case

COLUMBIA — South Carolina's Supreme Court on Monday questioned how the public access to the presidential primary would be protected if counties won a suit challenging the first-in-the-South GOP contest just two months away.

The court heard arguments over a lawsuit claiming that the primary is a private affair and that counties can't be forced to use taxpayer money to help support it.

The Jan. 21 primary is expected to cost about $1.5 million statewide, but counties say they expect to foot the bill for about $1 million that the state won't reimburse. A decision from the court could come within days.

Before 2008, South Carolina political parties ran and paid for their own presidential nomination selection events. In 2007, the Legislature approved using taxpayer money for the wide-open 2008 presidential primary. But counties said they were left paying for things like overtime and maintenance.

Beaufort, Chester, Greenville and Spartanburg counties sued last month. Their lawyer, Joel Collins, said the primary now rests on budget law changes that he said don't mandate anything. Instead, the budget language only authorizes the state Election Commission to use money set aside for another to make sure the state's ballots are secure for a presidential primary.

Lawyers for the legislature, Election Commission and GOP and Democratic parties, argued that the primary should go forward and that a combination of budget law and existing state code allows it.

Beatty agreed that budget law gives the Election Commission authority to use money, "but it does not give them the authority, as I see it, to conduct the election," he said.

"The Legislature had conflicting opinions about funding these elections and requiring the counties pay for them when this bill passed in 2007. That's why it was limited 2008," said Beatty, a former legislator. "Now, what you're asking us to do, as I see it, is to do something that the Legislature refused to do itself. You're asking us to perform as super legislature."

Collins said there is no clear authority for the State Election Commission to tell county election commissions to do anything with a presidential primary. And the primary "doesn't decide whose name goes on the ballot," Collins said. "But this is a tremendous expense that we incurred in 2008."

Chief Justice Jean Toal noted the wide differences that counties reported on their expenses, with smaller counties sometimes reporting their costs for primaries would be much higher than counties with more voters. "It doesn't give you a completely confident feeling about the figures that have been projected," Toal said.

Meanwhile, Toal said courts for decades have dismissed the notion that primaries are private events — arguments made in the past to bar black voters from having a say in who appeared on ballots.

Primaries, no matter what they're called, "are essential to the exercise of the right to vote of our citizens in this state and in this country," Toal said.

Collins said he had no doubt that primaries are important, but noted the state had left presidential primaries up to the parties to pay for and run until 2008. He said if the court tossed out the primary, the Legislature could quickly come into session and properly authorize it. Or, the primary could simply go back to the way it was run for years with names on paper ballots that the party counted.

"They've done it before and they've done it successfully," Collins said.

State GOP Chairman Chad Connelly said afterward the budget law and existing statute allow for the primary. "We think it stands on merits," Connelly said.

While the Legislature is letting the Election Commission put up to $680,000 into running the primary, it's up to Connelly's party to raise the balance. They've been scrambling to do that with fundraisers involving presidential candidates and other events, including a reception at the GOP presidential debate in Spartanburg on Saturday.

Connelly said counties are fighting about being reimbursed for expenses that that state hasn't allowed in the past.

"We've said all along we'd pay for legitimate costs," Connelly said. "So what are counties trying to get over on the Election Commission?"

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